The trial of 28 year old UB lecturer,Leon Leslie ended in his acquittal on Wednesday November 9th. Leslie had been charged twice for the crime of keeping a prohibited material, a bullet proof vest.

The acquittal came after the arresting officer, Detective Constable, Ivan Galvez testified in the trial before Magistrate Dorothy Flowers in Court #6 and said that on the night of January 16th he found a bullet proof vest that had the serial number DC3ESL-5187 on it. However, in Galvez’s initial report to the police about the bust, he had reported that the serial number was 5148.

In court DC Galvez admitted that the vest was different and that it is not the same vest as the one he had reported in his statement in January of this year. With hearing that, Leslie’s attorney, Ellis Arnold made a no case submission on his behalf arguing that the arresting officer spoke of a bullet proof vest but that there is no guarantee that the one before the court is the same as the one found on Leslie as the serial numbers are different.

The Magistrate agreed with him and upheld the no case submission and then she told Leslie that he was acquitted of the charge and was free to go.

On July 20th of this year, Leslie saw the charge being dismissed by a magistrate for want of prosecution when the Investigating officer, DC Galvez failed to show up in court to testify against Leslie. The matter had been set for trial that day in July and when Galvez failed to show up, the matter was dismissed and he was set free. But a directive was sent to the police ordering them to re-arrest Leslie later this year and recharge him for the same crime. The Arresting officer claimed that he was never summoned to court on that day in July of this year sohe could not show up for something he had no idea was going to take place.

On January 16th, Ivan Galvez, attached to the GSU claimed that whilst on patrol, he searched the vehicle of Leslie, a Gold Pathfinder where he found a bullet proof vest in the back of his vehicle while it was parked on Periwinkle Street in Belize City .